How Cuphead Succeeded When It Absolutely Should Have Failed
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- Опубліковано 29 вер 2024
- Before Cuphead became the worldwide sensation that it is, it seemed like it would be a flop. With more traditional animation styles, and child like characters it wasn't clear who the audience for Cuphead was. To everyones surprise it was a massive hit. But why did Cuphead resonate so well with it's fanbase?
#cuphead #cupheadshow #nerdstalgic
Written by Ash Mitrano
Edited by David Sadvari
It's these indie games like Hollow Knight, Undertale, Celeste, Hades, Stardew Valley, Subnautica, Untitled Goose Game and of course Cuphead that really take the spot. Just goes to show you only need motivation to make something amazing!
This is why I stick to indie and not AAA
@@revimfadli4666 Some AAAs are masterpieces
And Stray
Pizza Tower has joined the group now
I'm sad that it's over but I'm glad they went "quality over quantity" and we can say goodbye to this masterpiece instead of it becoming a crappy franchise like some games do.
Yeah, if they didn’t do quality then it could have flopped
they made a second game
@@eyeshaver Its a dlc not a second game
@@eyeshaver Since when.
@@mutiiYT sorry I've been mistaken
I find it strange the way he says it was “made to fail” when it was just really an overly ambiguous indie title
5:47 my bro that beat cuphead at 5 years old: 🫠
Considering how they succeeded, the name of the developer “Chad” is well deserved, he is a true chad.
This is honestly really rude.
its not rude its just statistics
Animation was never made for kids, expecially in those years!! It's a MEDIA, not a genre! And the first shorts that looked like cuphead were made with only ADULTS in mind!
I thought cuphead was a genius idea when it came out, literally the levels are bosses, its so fun because bosses are the best parts of games, levels usually feel like filler, but even the run and guns were fun because they gave you coins to buy stuff so you had a reason to play them
I'm eight and I have almost 300% cuphead
One of my animation teachers designed more than half of bosses and animated throughout the whole game, she is AMAZING at her craft and I aspire to be an inch of a monster of what she already is. 🥺 much love to Tina, I learned so much from her in such little time!
Wow! Tina Nawrocki was your animation teacher?
@@vedsona8707 yeah! She is a sweetheart and truly loves her craft with a passion, her classes were extremely fun to take :D
She did incledible!
Massive respect to her! The designs in this game are the best 1930's style designs in any medium since the 1940s!
@@Rationalific oh absolutely, and I think that the game couldnt have been the same without her because she already embodies that vibe, her house and clothes are from those decades too so even before Cuphead she was at least VERY familiar with everything from the 30’s
I think Cuphead's difficulty was it's saving grace.
I remember people like Angry Joe clowning reviewers who couldn't get past the tutorial and first couple of levels. They defended the game from the criticism that it was "too hard", and the debate on that criticism created a lot of attention and led a lot of people to try it to see for themselves how hard it truly was. The game had an Excalibur/Mjölnir element to it, with people wanting see if they "were worthy".
I know without this debate, I myself would have never even tried it.
Well said joe.
Personally, I play games to enjoy myself, not because I've got something to prove, but you do you!
Damn I forgot about angry Joe. How is he these days?, Angry?
I now remember the game journalist on the tutorial level. Thank you.
I also like that Cuphead isn't one of these games that is so difficult it's unplayable it's a balanced level of difficult
What many people fail to see is that animation is NOT meant for kids. It isn’t a genre, it is a medium of art. Sure, most animated projects are usually meant for kids, but people like Brad Bird, Hayao Miyazaki, Jared and Chad, hell even Vivziepop (pun not intended) break past and exceed those boundaries and show people what animation can truly be. Animation is not meant for kids only, it can be for any age or demographic and we need more people like this to prove so to the public eye. The difficulty may be a bit niche in this time and day, but that’s what makes it so unique and vastly better from most AAA games. The difficulty also allows for a much more satisfying experience as you progress through the game.
EXACTLY THANK YOU! And the original Fleischer animations were *not* meant for kids, by far! By today's standards, I think they classify as an "adult cartoon", not Rick and Morty style, but Vivziepop style.
I actually did a class presentation on this topic in my English class during my senior year of highschool and got a standing ovation. This is absolutely spot on. Brad Bird himself even said that if one was look into the history of animation they’d find it was originally intended to be an adult targeted medium. So when people look at animated content and write it off as something solely for kids or something that’s childish and stupid they are really discrediting so many people (mainly writers and artists and their life’s work) and the potential of an entire medium and the culture grounded behind it. I dare say animated shows and films take just as much if not more time and effort than live action films and shows most of the time. Criminally underrated smh.
@@daniellep4201 Exactly, I hate it when people say “iT’s jUsT a KiD’s mOviE!”
also the oscars are so disrespectful towards the animation medium as a whole, which only fuels my hatred of the oscars
i love this comment for one reason as while going to a more modern thing i have people tell me anime just for kids and its definitely not and it makes me angry just like when i was told games are just for kids its something that gets said to a lot of things games anything animated i even had some people call one of my favorite hobby's table top games just for kids and all. sorry for random i wanted mto rant about this for a second after reading your comment.
@@nomymina5429
“aNiMe iS jUsT fOr KiDs!” 🤓
Studio Gibli: “am i a joke to you?”
in my opinion i think the reason cuphead succeeded and still is today because of how unique it is to other indie games, its a love letter to 1930's animations and its incredibly difficult because in every setting you are placed in literally everything is trying to hurt you
Games like cuphead, Hades, and Hollowknight are true works of art and gaming.
indie games don't fuck around 😎
Agreed
@@aaronatkinson177 Celeste, crypt of the necrodancer,Ori 1&2 mad rat dead the list goes on and on
Celeste is indeed a masterpiece first time I ever cried while listening to a games soundtrack 😢 😃 the controls we're very responsive the story was also very inspiring the characters shown we're all so memorable celeste is proof that indies are a work of art 🎨 💙
@@natepion8449 indeed
I find it fitting that a game about an insane gamble against the devil himself, was itself, an insane gamble to make.
I remember seeing the game visually and was going to buy it regardless of how good the game was. If something is THAT different, I'll support it on principle alone. Encourage innovation in the game industry!
Cuphead is one of my favorite games. I was sold after the first reveal and was NOT disappointed by the gameplay or difficulty. The game is an Awesome challenge. I love it
Damn, and I already had a lot of respect for the people behind this game. I never knew how near suicidal this was for their careers.
As a long time Mario fan, Cuphead is my favorite non-Mario game. I really appreciate their work and dedication to this game, I love their character design, their ideas and level design are on par with Mario 3 and Mario World (two of the greatest platformers ever made), and the difficulty may be unfair but its perfect. I especially like how this game wants us to be more advanced at gaming with how hard each boss is. I'm glad the brothers succeed and I'm glad that cuphead is getting the praise it deserves.
How is harkening back to before the 90s something exclusively "for young kids"?
How is 2d animation "outdated"?
You trying to match the early 90s takes on animation and games or something?
Because that's exactly what big triple A publishers would think if this was brought up to them.
@@bestlaptop_psn And look at Japanese anime.
@@nushia7192 Yeah it's popular
The funny thing about the idea that the game is too difficult for kids is funny. I mean the games it is based of were difficult as well and us older gamers played them as kids. Whish games would do this more often make the game hallenging you need to get better to progress and stop hand holding people let them fail and get better
Yeah, I'm tired of saving my little brother like, a thousand times every level and having to be blamed for not beating the level cuz who else will?
someone literally said their 6 year old beat it, we just have skill issue.
@@shindoesnotdovids Really just depends on how desperate they are to beat it. They can get better if they really want to
@@OdysseyKinsey That 6 year old must have been desperate as hell then.
It makes finally beating the boss all the more satisfying.
Cuphead can never be overrated. Like you said you can feel the love and passion in every frame and in every music note. It's one of my all times favourite styles. When something is that well done, no matter how successful, It'll never be enough for me. They always deserve more ❤️🌈🦄
'Should have failed' just sounds wrong. Cuphead is just a perfect example for how and why 'Indie' games are loved, to have a unique experience. In a world where games are dissected and are defined by small details and mechanics, games shouldn't be a downfall for that, especially if it's trying new stuff. The difficulty, art and game itself is very unique and ambitious, something a lot of players/gamers would like to see!
All the reasons you gave for it being bad were all reasons why it was so successful, artful and punishing in a fair way from a small indie team. Not a AAA studio loot box fest. It's no surprise why this game is so well lauded. Bad title is bad.
I’m interested in moreso how it was doomed to fail, to me it always seemed like it got a lot of attention
it was a big gamble. rubberhose animation would liquify any normal budget and if this game couldn't make enough money the brothers would be in shambles. there's also the fact that it doesn't flop but a "better" game appears. Or even bad marketing could've screwed them. there's also the fact that some people were impatient. it could've fell off at any given moment in development just because people weren't willing to wait that long.
TLDR: there was multiple opportunities for the game to fail.
Almost like those old animation studios. Destined to fail but somehow with a stroke of luck and talent, became something bigger.
thing is though, people LOVE shooters, and bullet hell games, and hard as nails indy games, there is literally ZERO REASONS why cuphead should have failed.
Well, it's not what industry trends were showing, at least not for companies that listen to that noisy minority vocal people that complain that a game hasn't fast enough regenerating life, enough checkpoints or autosave moments. Not to the industry that was trying to push open world, full of mtx garbage we're seeing up to this date.
@@Rafa-Silva-Alt the industry doing something, is NOT "market research" ACTUALLY listening to what people want, is, and even then, people were railing on the AAA industry and calling them corrupt, and everything else they could....like if "the man" says to do something, you can almost guarantee that if you make the exact opposite, of what everyone else is doing it will sell better. the moment the AAA industry jumps on something, its dead.
@@stapuft Thats partially true, I also believe that people doesn't always know what they want ("If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses" Ford analogy) and are driven by hype and curiosity, hence the success of otherwise niche games like CP77 (basically an immersive sim) and Elden Ring (a Souls-like).
it's honestly awesome how far this game has come over the years from the show to it's dlc and everything else in between it's truly something you can never forget
I think cuphead was successful because it did not go beyond its means and had clean and great designs/mechanics which is also rooted in its simplicity and not trying to do to much, all you can do is move and shoot , you can aim that shot and also do a parry of a pink items which I believe is still rhe jump button outside of that there's the ability to switch gun type and that's about it, you can buy up to i think 6 different shots and also some passive items as well and that's it, games not to give there character a ton of different moves and abilities, indie game in particular can suffer from this because of over ambitious game designers who haven't made many games yet. Because of that simplicity they were able to but complexity in a place that wouldn't Over complicate the game or make unforseen complications with other mechanics or systems and not to hard to prograrm , boss difficulty.. top it all off with great design and old school style animation and never overextended it self to much. While there may not be much content wise, there really isn't much if anything bad about the game.
Well done! I still haven't played Cuphead beyond a few levels a friends place... tbh I'm afraid of rage quitting and destroying my controller 😜
The trick to Cuphead is that everything LOOKS and SOUNDS intimidating, once you finish the first playthrough redoing it's so much easier :)
“How Nerdstalgic Gaming succeeded when he ABSOLUTELY should’ve failed”-my post
As a kid i beat cuphead 200% including the achievments, it became one of my favorite games due to its difficulty, i like hard games which is why i live this game, its also why i like hollowknight, im impressed by cuphead even more
As a kid? Jesus it is only five years old. You should wait a little longer before throwing the "as a kid" thing around. You're not even an adult yet.
Im sure u have
@@barrolboi5101 i actually did but its ok if you dont think so, i can make a video showing it, i actually did it twice on a ps4 but thats in a different house witg cousins
Looks beautiful I’m gonna buy this piece of art.
I honestly could care less about the "problematic" history of Fleischer animation. Imagine playing Cuphead while fuming about drawings from almost a hundred years ago.
That's basically what journativists does these days, you know?
2:28
"You know what I do when I'm not sure of my decision? *I DOUBLE DOWN!* "
Weren't the run n gun stages product of feedback during the game reveal?
Or... maybe cuz the game simply turned out fun and people actually liked the cartoon style. I mean, it makes sense that a game that has a lot of effort put into it at gets people interested in playing it would "work"
You know cartoons used to be for everyone and not just kids at one point in time
They still are, I hate that misconception :(
Kinda reminds me of when i tried to watch invincible with my dad. Took forever to convince him to watch the first episode cuz "I dont wanna watch a childrens show" and after the pilot he didn´t want to watch the rest bc "thats way too brutal, how can you watch something like this?" Ah yes im sorry the "childrens show" was way too brutal for your liking lmao
Yeah, idk what he's talking about
This guy is clearly a Nintendo hater or weirdly shits on cartoons.
Seriously. Wtf Nerdstalgic
The game should have failed from the perspective of big companies, but gaming industry is so much more than AAA companies these days. And this was already true back in '17. What a boring take.
Well, if you even tried to watch and understand the video, you saw that the problematic was much beyond that. Besides, today we have plenty space for games like that, but that was not true for the early 10s when the game began development, and still wasn't in 2015 when they announced it. Cuphead was one of the exceptions to the rule tha opened the space we have today for indies.
@@Rafa-Silva-Alt All I see are Big Money excuses for why the game shouldn't have worked.
That being said, at the end of the day it's just my opinion. My other opinion is, that I don't really care what you think. So goodbye.
@@Rafa-Silva-Alt wtf are you even talking about? Cuphead wasn't an opener to the indy sphere. Indy games have been massive for at least a decade.
The fact of the matter is that Cuphead was a well made, relatively bug free, and artistically unique game. It never would have 'failed'. The worst that could have happened would be for it to be niche, which even then was unlikely given how well made it was.
About the only thing you can argue is that back in 2015/16 the expansion of the indy sphere of gaming allowed the game to flourish into a much bigger hit.
As @W puts it. All of these reasons that the game should have failed, are reasons why AAA gaming studios are becoming so stale, and the indy scene is chugging along healthily.
@@tweda4 So the op just fails to point out why it's boring, when even with your words, you're showing it's much more interesting than most people know.
If it had a more modern art style and less polished animation it would flopped so hard
I have a problem with people who say the 1930s art style is racist. Just because there’s a few bad apples, shouldn’t make the whole apple tree problematic. Are we going to cancel classics such as Popeye and Mickey (ignoring the war propaganda Disney did.) just because there was a few racist animations that aren’t even related?
Imagine in the future we canceled 2010s-2020s games because those games are filled with micro transactions and where just to make money.
The past is always morally worst then the present, and the present is always morally better then the past. Every time period probably thought that.
This game blew me away when it came out. I assumed it was a huge studio undertaking because of the quality. Wow
I quit because it was so damn hard. But I'm inspired to try it again now 🤠
Yeah, casinos and different animated alcoholic drinks would be in a children's cartoon -> not.
1 sec im 9 and i beat the game and im gonna speedrun it soooo
Consumers can recognize passion. Especially after all the shitty micro transaction saturated boring games.
I'm not offended or anything but saying kids don't play cuphead isn't really true, I'm not even a teen yet and I've beaten the game and play it every day, anyway, love the video, keep up the good work
I'm 9, I play it
4:41 that prompt from the interviewer .. game journos really enjoy congratulating themselves on not putting blackface in things like it's some ultra-forward progressive thing.
"Impossible to play with kids."
Me, being 12, who also beat cuphead and the dlc: Totally :D
I think there's a very important difference between designing a game just to be hard versus designing a game that forces players to engage with complexity and dexterity. Anyone can make a game hard. The point of a game like Cuphead is to create an environment where high level play is relevant. Many games have deep complexity that is never utilized because the game barely ever creates scenarios where that complexity is necessary. Cuphead gives you a suite of tools and beautifully designed challenges and invites you to maximize their potential. That is more artistic than simply throwing in a bunch of mindless trial and error for the sake of it.
When I saw the thumbnail I thought it was a hater video, but it was a false alarm, thanks for the history lesson about that video game though :-)
I hope MDHR keeps trying new things and they don’t milk Cuphead. I’m not against a sequel but I don’t want the studio to only be known as “that Cuphead studio.”
8:24 Are you kidding me? What other game looks like a 1930/40s cartoon? No game has done this in history to my knowledge. Disney should be making Disney games in this style.
This is hands down the best art style from movie/show to game.
The anime games that look like their respected show are great too. Near flawless transition.
Funny how to turned from a kids idea into a indie franchise with a on running show
Cuphead is ingrain in my life now. Not only because one of my best friends that I’ve made in college is obsessed over it, but a former student at my college has worked on the storyboards for the Cuphead Show as well. I never expected Cuphead to invade my life until last year 💀
Dlc now stands for
Delicious last course
Cup head is one of my favourite games i loved the challenge and beat the game and got the plat trophy
Cuphead worked where others failed because it was, first and foremost, ***FUN***
There are only few games that I think are better than Cuphead (like Minecraft and Hollow Knight) but at least it’s better than games like Fortnite (my opinion obviously)
Chad Moldenhauer is evolving *music plays* Chad Moldenhauer has evolved in Giga Chad Moldenhauer
Really inspiring! Everyone should be aspire to create for fun. Keep these videos up!😄
For me the game was fun because it was hard and it encouraged me to keep going.
*sees the title of the video*
(GASP) how DARE YOU say Cuphead should’ve failed! (Smacc)
he didn't insult it. watch the video
It succeed even more when Cuohead's game sequel (The Delicious Last Course) got even better than the classic, it's like Shrek 2 all over again. I think the boss fight with Saltbaker really impressed the whole audience. Not to mention, Cuphead show season 2 turned out better than season 1.
Season 2 was weird, but cool.
Cuphead is awesome...
Got into it solely to fill in the gap megaman x left
It did not disappoint
I’m a wimp. The difficulty would have sent me packing, but my 11 year old is clawing through, taking on optional challenges, occasionally dragging me into it. If it weren’t for my little masochist, I’d have passed on the gene. O, gone are the days I’d grind my smb3 speed run on the nes. Not that speed runs were a THING then.
Where's the double like button! Thank you for all the work making this video
Cuphead...... CUPHEAD IT IS MY ONE OF MY FAVORIT GAMES EVER IT IS IN MY TOP 3
The fact that this came out around Mario Odyssey and Sonic Mania is crazy
The cup head Netflix series is actually pretty decent
Can we get a video about stardew valley, like this one with deep dive into development and pixel-art experience gained by concernedape as time went.
Amazing video btw
"seemed like it would be a flop"? Is this a Mandala effect? Did i arrive from a different timeline? I quite vividly remember the Microsoft E3 showcase that featured a few scant seconds of early Cuphead where the universal response was "STOP! forget every other game in that showcase: What was THAT?" I even could probably find the UA-cam video if given a short research time and immediately go to the positive comments from everyone wanting to know more about the game from under ten seconds of footage.
Edit: Oh. Ray Schism. That old chestnut. The only people who care about him are college girls who live in gated communities. Literally the least important thing in video game development and you decide to make it the focus of the back half of your video. It is literally the most easy thing in the goddamn universe to apply, easier than lead paint and three times as toxic. Wake me up when you find something that Ray hasn't twaddled the todger of. I'll not bother waiting. Nobody ever has, and you won't either.
I mean it was great animation but there was literally no story or levels just run around a litte bit and fight boss battles, if the shit wasn’t so hard the entire game wouldve been fifteen minutes, pass
Cuphead is a masterpiece I’m disliking
You should appreciate that the creators HAND DREW THE ENTIRE THING.
How did I just find out there was Nerdstalgic gaming?
Cuphead, along with Breath of the Wild and Hollow Knight, are my three favorite games of the past decade.
That is some lofty praise and good company.
Cuphead worked, because it was made with 100% love. Unlike other indie games, For lack of a Better example, Yandere Simulator.
Yandere Simulator has a Great idea to it, The Yandere Trope in Anime is such a Funky Topic, and could be done in so many ways that make it fun! And Like Cuphead, It's taken years to get a mostly working game for it. However the reason Yandere Simulator has such a weird response is because it doesn't feel like it's being loved. It feels like someone being held at gunpoint to force the creation of a Game.
A game like Cuphead in terms of Creation is Deltarune, the Creation of Deltarune took so long because Toby Fox was experimenting, he was learning how to make a specific styled game. And Considering Undertale had already become such a Huge Franchise Deltarune could have ended up going down the drain. But Toby loves game making, and he loves His characters. That is what I believe caused such love for Deltarune. I played Deltarune chapter 1 as soon as it was announced on Toby's Twitter. And while I can admit that I've never played Undertale (I watched others play it because I was Like, 11 when Undertale came out and we didn't have money for a PC) When I played Deltarune on my shitty ass Laptop that couldn't open anything without a USB, I was in love with every character that was newly introduced. So much so that seeing Sans at the end of the game didn't feel like Just a reference to Undertale. Sans in Deltarune feels like an entirely new Guy. Deltarune was built with Love, and so Was Cuphead.
Something Else I'd like to mention is The time Cuphead finally released, sure, Mario Odyssey and other big name games were coming out. But so did Bendy and the Ink Machine. Bendy and Cuphead are Two entirely separate concepts, one being A horror game and the other being an adventure boss game, but both dealing with Rubber Hose style. Bendy was such a success that I can admit I didn't know what Cuphead was until people were drawing Bendy and Cuphead being homies and I was interested because I liked Bendy's vibe and so I wanted to see how Cuphead pulled it off. I feel horrible saying this, but Honestly, if Bendy Chapter 1 wasn't released at the time it was. I probably wouldn't know what Cuphead was to this Day. And I wouldn't be surprised if Other people are in the same boat.
Apologies for the rambling. ^^'
Bro what happened to this channel haha, the videos are still fantastic. What happened to the views
These brothers are inspiration I would like to create my own thing story one day
This game is a influence to me!
Cuphead is underrated, you may think oh well all these people are playing it. but underrated means it does not get why it deserved, Not that it's super small but it's very good,
Never played the game. I love the show!!!
if you love the show then you will love the game 🎮 😉
@@aaronatkinson177 mmm, I don't know. I'm not trying to throw my system out the window when I rage quit
@@jasonguinn6075 if you buy the dlc and the game it makes it easier
we need an hollow knight doc
Cool video, but I think you forgot that youtube can make stuff popular.
And all the pain and suffering others have had with this game 😂
How I would describe Cuphead: What should've been a recipe for disaster turned out to be the gaming world's biggedt success story.
Im 10 and i beat the game
I was stuck on the first level of Cuphead for a week. I like difficult games, but even the first level kicked my ass so hard. Although, I do like how each death felt like it was my fault similar to the way Mega Man's classic games do.
The style the game exudes is a major benefit, and they did well knowing "this style was used in bad ways, we can avoid those while honoring the overall aesthetic". They even got the DLC out five years later.
YOU CAN CALL IT IMPOSSIBLE BUT IM A YOUNG LAD AND IM AT WORLD 3
Animation is for everyone. Don't underestimate it, the aesthetics of Cuphead are amazing and the people who worked on the game are so amazing and talented. At least in my opinion.
Ooh, boi are people gonna hate this vid
LOOVE CUPHEAD
No it should not HAVE FAILD IT SHOULD'VE WORK
To the channel owner or whatever idc what y’all say this game was a total success
It's because you're jealous that you couldn't live up to the masterpiece that Cuphead is.
@69Jeniffer as if you did
I’m sorry but I don’t agree I think the animation is amazing I loved the game so I don’t agree
Anyone know what the music at the very beginning of the video was?
Ooooo
I LOVE CUPHEAD!!!